Battle of Vukovar

The Battle of Vukovar (25 August-18 November 1991) was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern of Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitary forces. The result was a pyrrhic Serb victory.

In 1990, an armed uprising was started in Vukovar by Serb militias, supported by Serbian government and paramilitary groups, who seized control of Serb-populated areas of Croatia. The YPA began to intervene in favor of the rebellion, and conflict broke out in May 1991. In August 1991, the YPA launched a full-scale offensive against Croatian-held territory in eastern Slavonia, including the multicultural city of Vukovar.

Vukovar was defended by 1,800 Croat national guardsmen and civilian volunteers against as many as 36,000 YPA soldiers and Serb paramilitaries equipped with heavy armor and artillery. During the battle, up to 12,000 rockets and shells were fired a day, and it was the fiercest and most protracted battle in Europe since 1945; Vukovar was the first major European town to be entirely destroyed since World War II. When Vukovar fell on 18 November, 200 soldiers and civilians were massacred by the Serbs, and at least 20,000 inhabitants were expelled. Most of the city was ethnically cleansed of its non-Serb population and became part of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina. The battle proved to be a turning point in the Croatian war, as it was only a pyrrhic victory for the YPA, which was now exhausted. Vukovar remained in Serb hands until 1998, when it was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia. It was rebuilt, but it lost half of its pre-war population and buildings, and the city did not regain its former prosperity.